Batman in a Hospital Bed

It would have been perfectly understandable for Tomas to have faced the pain, frustration, and failing health of his final years privately and in silence, but that wasn’t him. Instead, he made his story part of our American record.

Mark Wilkerson spent eight years in the U.S. Army as an AH-1 Cobra and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crew chief with the 3rd Infantry and 101st Airborne Divisions.  He was deployed with the 101st to Somalia for six months in 1993.  He is the author of Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend and co-wrote Pearl Jam Twenty. He has three children: Alex, Nick, and Sam. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Melissa. His latest book is Tomas Young’s War (Haymarket Books).

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse’s Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt’s latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.